Wooden tiles and boards have long been utilized as a floor covering, ceiling or wall covering, a border for carpeted floors, and for other decorative purposes. It is generally considered that end grain wood is superior to flat grain wood with regard to many of these applications. For example, end grain wood is substantially more durable than flat grain wood, especially with regard to floor tiles and boards. Thus, wooden tiles and boards having a front or “wearing” surface which is at least partially or substantially comprised of end grain wood are much more durable than those comprised of only flat grain wood. Additionally, the appearance of end grain wood is unique in that a pattern of tree growth rings is revealed in the grain, as opposed to the more common “cathedral” grain pattern of flat grain wood.
Wooden tiles known as “parquetry” (for floor tiles) or “marquetry” (for other decorative purposes) generally comprise small pieces of wood which are manually arranged and adhesively bonded together to form each individual tile. Methods for making parquetry are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,140 dated Mar. 15, 1988 of Yontrarak for WOODEN TILE AND METHOD FOR MAKING THE SAME and U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,584 of Severson et al. for METHOD FOR MAKING WOODEN TILE, which are hereby incorporated by reference for all that is contained therein. It is noted in each of these patents that, while end grain wood is much more durable than flat grain wood, it also tends to be less flexible. Thus, using standard parquetry methods, tiles created with small pieces of end grain wood tend to break apart more easily than those made of flat grain wood. These patents attempt to improve on methods for assembling the small pieces of wood to create wooden tiles which are more flexible and stable.
Regardless of the improvements shown in these patents, the methods for making a parquetry or marquetry-type of wooden tile which involve manually assembling small pieces of wood to create individual tiles are extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. Furthermore, since each tile or board is individually assembled using separately-cut pieces of wood, any two tiles produced are highly likely to have at least some inconsistencies in their surface patterns. In addition, there is a limit to the details which may be included in a parquetry or marquetry-type of wooden tile in that the individually-cut pieces of wood which make up the tile must be thick enough to be easily assembled. Thus, no thin lines of wood or other such inlay can reasonably be included in a wooden tile produced by standard methods without prohibitively raising the cost of such tile. Finally, as noted above, for tiles comprised of end grain wood pieces, special steps must be taken to assemble a tile which is more flexible and stable.
Wooden boards of the type used for flooring are typically comprised of a single type of wood, such as, for example, oak, cherry, or other hardwood. While it would be very desirable to produce a board having several different species of wood and/or intricate details and patterns, including repeating and/or continuous patterns therein, one would encounter the same problems noted above using traditional methods to produce such a board.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for efficiently making a plurality of wooden tiles.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for efficiently making a plurality of wooden boards having a repeating and/or continuous pattern thereon.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for making a plurality of wooden tiles and boards each having a front or “wearing” surface at least partially comprised of end grain wood, most preferably substantially comprised of end grain wood and/or a combination of flat grain wood and end grain wood. The resulting wooden tiles and boards should be stable and should not easily break apart.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for making a plurality of wooden tiles and boards having wood and/or non-wood inlays.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for making a plurality of wooden tiles and boards having a consistent surface pattern thereon.